Browsing Posts tagged review

Trying to get back in shape and feel happier about myself after the years of maladministration I’ve been subjected to and my body falling into terrible shape and after a crisis of mental health issues I have not only been trying to get back into shape in sometimes desperate and stupid measures but also in order to feel happier about my looks I decided to buy some extreme facial products and leave them on for extreme periods overnight where it states to leave them on at most for 30 minutes and show off the results.

I try both a charcoal face mask and a 24 karat gold collagen one, both have a little effect which seems temporary and perhaps down to my own ill health which could be liver problems as this is where my doctor states the pain is even though I have to wait up to 26 weeks for a hospital appointment to get a proper scan, however I wish to look better sooner as I want to try and win back my ex and feel a little hopeful for something I want in life to go right for once.

Having tried both products however it is clear that one works far better than the other, at least in overnight usage terms. The 24 karat gold collagen facemask seems a little misleading, not only does the package show a slip on mask, but the gold is shown to be more extreme than the glue like liquidy glitter texture you end up with, which peels off too easily and doesn’t feel or look like it works as well as the charcoal face mask, which dries to a satisfying rubbery texture which dries to a satisfying peel to remove blackheads and impurities and also looks like it whitens the skin better at least in a temporary nature to leave a much better complexion for the day ahead, this does however fade and pass but again if I’ve got liver problems perhaps results might last longer for you at home.

I have used one1x however I notice that since my purchase clearasil and other products have their own charcoal products so perhaps this is an upcoming thing, either way I would recommend the charcoal face mask over any others as it does the job and feels more like it’s working and peels off satisfyingly.

Some games I wanted to play but didn’t do a full series on, more and more games will be added to this playlist with one off gameplay video’s so if you want to check out the links to the games you’ll have to go to the individual video for that game, however this playlist will show off many games which perhaps have more simplistic gameplay that wouldn’t need showing in a full review, or just some games I have got in bundles in the past or just something I want to show off a little without playing a full series on the game.

With the average UK household said to be wasting £60 in food every month tesco have introduced measures to cut down on their own food waste by launching a community food connection program which donates surplus food from their stores to local charities, alongside this they are introducing “perfectly imperfect” ranges to take more fruit and veg from their suppliers which wouldn’t fit the normal standards, but essentially is a replacement for the value ranges rebranded and perhaps repriced.

Of course this doesn’t reduce the fact that households waste so much food on average, instead that would come down to changing the way you shop and the way you use the food in your household, where various suggestions are made, through a leftovers tool where you can look up recipe’s to use the leftovers in your fridge rather than allowing them to go to waste, along with recipe’s at lovefoodhatewaste which has been launched to help waste less.

I received vouchers to try the perfectly imperfect fruit range with apples and pears currently available but these would change throughout the year with whatever fruit and veg they have growing which would have imperfect options, along with a voucher to try the eat fresh, keep fresh chicken range at £2.50

Perfectly Imperfect Range

The perfectly imperfect range is fruit and vegetable products which may just be off shape or a little small or large, but could have other imperfections too. It would seem they are a replacement for the tesco value range by another name, and as such varieties in the fruit and veg would vary from week to week depending on what products are available at that time to tesco to fill the range, and these would not last all year but be very seasonal, however while they’re there you can get necessary fruit and vegetable fulfillment at a reasonable price.

Finding the products proved to be rather difficult, and while staff would promise a new delivery every day if you went in 4 time in a week and a half like I did they never had a single delivery, and staff will use the go to “there’s a delivery tomorrow” without actually checking if the range is coming in or not as the products never got refilled, I ended up having to resort to talking to tesco’s twitter account to get help sourcing the product as even though deliveries were stated it never arrived either, and I got sent to another store which had some in stock, price may also seem to vary from store to store as my store stated 70p for the apples but I got them for 60p in the store I went to where they were in stock.

The range is fine, and when I worked at festivals the fruit would often be gala apples much the same as those in the perfectly imperfect range, and the conference pears look perfectly fine to me, maybe they don’t have noble shoulders but that doesn’t matter and eating them it’s simply that these fruits haven’t aged properly, there’s no pips inside, but once they’ve ripened and gone softer they taste perfectly fine, and if you’re into hard pears you’ve got them off the bat! All in all the range is perfectly fine, and the fact is other than looks you’re really going to get the same product at a cheaper rate, maybe you might have to peel the fruit and remove the imperfections if there are nips in the flesh, but that’s minor and you’re likely to get that in most instances anyway.

Eat Fresh, Keep Fresh Chicken

The “eat fresh, keep fresh” chicken range contains 300g of chicken which is more expensive than the willow farms range which is £1.89 for the same amount of chicken, the only variation is that both breasts are together in the willow farms where the tesco keep fresh range has two separate compartments, but at nearly 60p extra this probably isn’t ideal. With the 60p extra you could buy some clingfilm to wrap the second breast and this would last hundreds of packs not just one, and at nearly 25% off for exactly the same product it seems a rather wasteful range, especially if most people would cook both breasts together if they’re having a meal with a partner, and single people can store the other breast fine without it’s own vacuum sealed pack, unless they’re really silly and leave it uncovered several days straight, or even out of the fridge but that’s their own fault then and a lack of common sense in consumers doesn’t justify such expensive packaging options which is actually very wasteful in terms of product packaging.

Cooking the product itself it is an inferior chicken breast also, as it has a lot of added water. because the juices coming from the breast when cooked on the george forman grill were mostly water, having cooked a lot of meats and chicken on the grill I know the fluids that come from these and this was very watery, also when cooked the flavour was missing and it was a very disappointing product, you can definitely find chicken which hasn’t been pumped with preservatives and water as much as this for a better price, and at £8.34 a kilo you expect unmessed with chicken not something that is inflated with water to make more profits. (For reference beef brisket on the counter is £8 a kilo or you can get pork for significantly less) I just found the chicken very disappointing, and is probably the worst chicken I’ve ever had.

Another thing I would change is that the skin is removed, with such a product if the skin was left on the breast it could easily be removed if someone didn’t want it but those who like the skin it’d be nice to have it included, but if as it seems the chicken has been inflated with added water injected then it’d be a flag saying hey this is so much bigger than the skin so you can see why they’ve had to remove it, but a nice piece of crispy skin on the breast is very nice, and if the “added water” is supposed to keep it moist, that’s the job the skin would do, keeping the moist breast during cooking and leaving a very tasty crispy outer layer, and I know a lot of people don’t know just how good a salted crispy chicken skin is, it’s chicken crackling and it’s very good. (just keep an eye out some celebrity chef will eventually steal the idea when they realize how good it is)

Reduced To Clear

One way tesco reduce the amount they waste is reducing products to clear so they’re cheaper and affordable with those who cannot afford to pay full retail, the problem with this comes two-fold in some instances the shelves contain out of date products not reduced more than 25% as they wont reduce the full range, and the other major problem comes in the fact that the price reductions occur at the same time every day and in my local store there’s a group of 6 women that act like piranha’s and block the isle with their trolleys and take absolutely everything that the assistant reduces to 80% every single day (quoted by the staff at the tesco store I visited) not only do they block the isles but if you do get past to look at the reduced produce, they will try to push you out and then grab and hold every single product to hold onto and pass to the assistant so nobody else gets reduced to clear produce.

Now I’m not suggesting reducing to clear is a bad thing because there are a lot of things I would rely upon reduced in order to live, it just needs a little reform where people every single day with entire trolleys of reduced products are clearly either selling on or wasting all of that food, which goes against the food waste scheme, as if they’re taking so much home simply because it’s cheap just to waste it this isn’t good. The other problem is that some ranges such as the ready meals and meat don’t seem to get reduced and get ignored so much so that on the 6 visits I made in short succession over a few weeks trying to get the apples at various times on 3 occasions I found out of date products in the stores ( and in my own personal shopping I keep coming across out of date products in tesco not reduced below 25% and that’s why they go unsold, sure they might go to charities but people would buy them to use and not want to rely upon the charities if they got reduced enough to actually sell)

The reforms I would suggest would be not to take products off the shelf to leave unreduced or even reduced at a small ammount of 5-10%, instead starting off at 25% the night before at the same time everything is reduced 80% save a job by doing it all together. There are people who would then buy it at 25%, with at least an extra day on the range, then in the morning/noonish it could be reduced to 40-50% and then later reduced to the 80-90% savings. I can guarantee some ranges get skipped as I have even gone in an hour before the store closed and asked the staff at the reduced section if the products were getting reduced any further and they were not, and this was one of the occasions where there were out of date products on the reduced to clear, and most of the range was only 25% off which was not good, and with discounters in the area offering similar products at much cheaper than even those reduced to clear prices it becomes a hard sell for those who are price savy and shop around.

Who is to say how the reduced to clear range may change with the new system, perhaps more ranges won’t get reduced because they will be passed onto charities, but in that instance tesco really are wasting more food, sure it’s going to charities but when there are people who would buy just what they would eat without wasting it if it was reduced to a price they could afford then reform might need to be done to ensure everything gets reasonably reduced so more gets sold, because surely it’s better to sell than to simply pass the buck to charities to seem like nothing is getting wasted.

What Can You Do To Reduce Waste Yourself?

The main reform which would need to occur is with yourself when you are shopping, if you are one of those wasting anything close to £60 of food every month you might want to think about what you are buying, do you need it, will you eat it? Will it go to waste? How much have you already got in your fridge going to waste? And if you’re reduced to clear shopping don’t take the entire shelf just because it is cheap, just take a few things some treats and some essentials and only what you know wont get wasted. Be kind and polite so other shoppers can also take advantage of the reductions, and in turn you might notice there are products left for you on other days too rather than a mad rush to grab everything in a sea of piranha munching your flesh if you put your arm in the section.

Other than that if you know you have some food which will be going to waste, cook it before it goes off, freeze it, or use a recipe to use it all up and enjoy the food you’ve purchased rather than throwing your money directly into the bin.

I was sent a voucher for tesco meat products in order to put up my opinion’s of selected by tesco wine’s but I didn’t receive any discount off the wine perhaps for a variety of reasons, partially from the government changes which have been implemented to “prevent” cheap alcohol being sold, which far from preventing drinking problems just makes alcohol more expensive in the lower quality end of the market and those with drinking problems will still have those issues and spend whatever the cost to maintain the habit. So as always www.drinkaware.co.uk and stay responsible.

In store you wouldn’t get a lot of the information put in the campaign with food suggestions and pairings or any highlight on the selected by tesco wines, and regardless of the sales and promotional side perhaps if the wine section selected food pairings (as part of the responsible theme being portrayed of enjoying with a meal) on the shelves along the wine this might encourage people to try the suggested accompaniments, however in store you would not know anything special about the new range as they are hard to spot on the shelves and hard to spot on the bottles, supposedly to make pricing easier despite clearly not being the case shelf wide as other wines remain on promotion and with money off so only the selected by tesco range of usually cheaper wines avoids being put on further promotion and I do question heavily the true nature of the change.

The selected by tesco labeling is rather well hidden on the wine, not highlighted and easily spotted, and amongst other wines on the shelves it can be hard to find the particular bottles in the range, and the price variation is definitely not any different to existing products, so claims it is perhaps somewhere between full retail and discounted for convenience all year round seems incorrect as it is simply full retail all year and never discounted ever again while more expensive wines may be discounted to this price range and give a better quality of wine.

Something else you wouldn’t know by simply purchasing off the shelf is that all the wines are taste tested and selected by the master of wines james davis, however tasting the £4 merlot I purchased heavy in tannin and very inferior it is hard to see how this was “specially selected” amongst merlot’s to be sold on the shelf as the best tesco could offer and specifically selected by tesco to be sold for around £4 when I have tasted much better merlot’s for £4 with no tannin ready to drink and of a good quality.

The recommendations listed in this campaign for a sunday roast are a rioja reserva at £6.50 for red meat and an australian chardonnay for £3.95 for chicken, which may have been reasonable suggestions however with my own studies of wines and spirits with an intermediate WSET wine tasting certification which involved tasting a lot of wines and champagnes both high end and low I can safely identify the qualities of wines as well as know what foods to pair with which wines and I would always recommend a merlot with red meat dishes, whether a roast or a steak even though a rioja is adept and as a reserva and knowing the quality of their merlot perhaps it was a better suggestion out of the two wines, but going in blind I would’ve found a better merlot if I was tesco’s master of wines!

So not receiving a discount on the wine I chose a £5 meat voucher out of the choices, and cooked up a roast dinner with a tesco counter brisket and the making of this will be over at wackykitchen.co.uk The other choices were tesco cheeses, where the wine recommended is a bordeux superior again no mention of this on the shelves near the wine nor the cheese selection. The tesco party food selection suggests an australian shiraz £3.95, and a rose zinfandel £4.50

The blurb that prices are being simplified rather than half price promotions seems a little stale when prices vary so much ranging from £3.95, £4 products to £4.50 £6 etc etc so rather than being simplified it seems that all the wines tend to have their own prices and do not pertain to the quality of the wine, as you will be getting a cheap tasting wine, in the case of the merlot at the very least as this was definitely a bottom of the range wine that needed perhaps another year or two aging to remove the tannin and to open up the flavours as it was very bitter and hard to identify any flavours behind the tannin, perhaps if this was decanted for a week it would be drinkable but freshly opened it lacked the quality I expected for something seemingly “selected” especially for tesco by wine tasting experts, which again you could get a £6-8 merlot often discounted to £4 of significantly better quality than this, there seems to be no noticeable saving and simplification, instead this is a fully retailed £4 wine which really should be discounted to possibly £2.50 to be of any noticeable value and my recommendation would be to look for the wine discounted to £4 from a higher price which will be the good quality ready to drink merlot with good flavour.

It does state that perhaps the selected by tesco wine range will make it easier to make your selection and this may be the case, that you avoid the selected by tesco range and look for a better quality wine discounted, as often the discounted merlot which is reduced to £4 will be noticeably better than the full retail merlot of £4.

The meat counter brisket however was good quality and definitely recommended, I just wish the wine was as the quality is stated to be and not the tannin filled disappointment it turned out to be as anyone unfamiliar with merlot would buy this once taste it and think never again simply because this was released far too soon and utterly bitter with tannin.

Human Fall Flat is a physics based puzzler in which you take control of bob, a morph like character who you can paint to any theme or meme you desire as you explore the 8 dreamscapes of the game. Obvious similarities have to be noted to gang beasts and your character as the control and shape of the main character are obvious however where gang beasts is a multiplayer adversarial brawl in human fall flat the objective is to make your way to the emergency exit through any means at your disposal, and while there are obvious laid out paths with a little human ingenuity there are a plethora of intended and unintentional ways to progress through the game.

Since the alpha two extra levels have been added along with an expansion on the castle level along with additional plans to add steam workshop functionality which could lead to unlimited dreamscapes and puzzles as well as the possibility to create your own scenario’s, even without this though the main game itself will take around 6-7 hours in a single playthrough so if you go through a few times having fun experimenting and exploring the different area’s and ways to solve the puzzles there is a lot of replayability in the game, and if you have the capability there is local co-op as you can take control of an extra bob along with a friend which adds even more ways in which you could get around the obstacles that stand before you.

Each dreamscape has it’s own theme both in the level design and the methodology in which you can solve the puzzles, with simple box and button puzzles, manipulation of platforms, levers and switches along with brick walls to knock down! and even electronically themed levels with batteries and vehicles to drive. The range of items and solutions also means that steam workshop compatibility will allow for any creative idea to be realized due to the diverse range of puzzle items available for use in the gameworld with little difficulty.

If you want to create your own bob however this can be a time consuming process depending on how clean you want the final look to be as lining up paint jobs without accidentally painting on another surface can be a little difficult, and if you don’t have a good webcam, especially if you try to use an android cam service putting your own face on bob might not be as ideal as if they had the ability to simply upload a photo and resize this to fit bob’s face, but with a little human determination you can make this work, my personal second bob did take 2 hours to get right and still didn’t match what I would have liked for facial clarity!

Other features include adventure mode upon completion of a level however this is currently not as intended as bob will be unconscious on the floor while you move the camera around which doesn’t allow you to make mini-sodes much like on the remote control’s as bob lays sleeping on the job rather than moving with a dynamic camera and not even attempting to spawn a second character fixes this issue at present, but the developer is still working on some features and there may be more that happen in the future that aren’t available at the time of release of this review, but without all of these the game is a very fun game, even in a second playthrough finding new things and still enjoying traversing the levels again I can definitely recommend a purchase especially if you like what you see as there is a lot more fun in playing the game than simply watching someone else play.

Life is strange episode 5 Polarized has been out for a while now and did polarize people in many ways with some hating the whole series as a result of how the game ended and some still loving the overall theme despite how it ended, however many seem to have missed the possible explanations for why and how things have gone as crazy as they did in the final episode through the natural plot progression.

This review will contain heavy spoilers so I would advise simply buying the game and checking it out for yourself if you wish to avoid these spoilers, however if you have played and completed the game or don’t mind spoilers feel free to read on, in the meantime you can find the game at http://store.steampowered.com/sub/56692/

Episode 5 begins in a natural position captured by jefferson waking up from being drugged at the end of the last episode and attempting escape, it is worth noting how jefferson establishes that max has this way of staring blankly into space as though daydreaming perhaps as she always has and how under his drugged state allows her to fall into her daydreams feeling them to be real, and how the entire game has been max’s way of escaping what has really happened to her. There are many points in this episode where she “escapes” the dark room by focusing on photo’s to enter their timeline and enact changes allowing her to escape, however in a drug induced state these could easily be explained away as a daydream especially as in every instance within the game no matter what she ends up back in the dark room with jefferson even when reality had no way to establish her ending up there poorly explained as jefferson burning her photo album, however this was in a halted timeline so having escaped and not been his victim this should never have occurred unless she never escaped the room other than in her mind.

Max does initially manage to escape to a perfect possible reality in which she has won the everyday heroes competition, where the other entries in the gallery are more heroic themed photo’s like firefighter’s, people training for running, pets etc, however max’s wall of selfies somehow wins the competition perhaps simply for being award winning jefferson’s prize student, or as it is max’s delusion of true happiness of course she won the competition, however a nosebleed quickly reminds her that arcadia bay is doomed and she cannot stay in this reality. These nosebleeds continue in the darkroom with jefferson noting how it must be a result of using too high a dosage of the drugs to incapacitate her and leave her malleable. Don’t forget that in previous episodes in the rewind you can hear voices stating to “stay with me max” as though she is dying and attempted to be coaxed back to life.

To save chloe once more she rips up her prize winning photo, which she had always ripped up in the original timeline before “altering” thing’s with her powers in order to save chloe’s life in the first place, her childhood best friend who she had not had a chance to reconnect with since returning to town, who’s death in the original place may have lead her to investigate the situation in a similar manner to the main game plot but on her own and to investigate why nathan shot her and the unraveling plot from there leading to her inevitable kidnap by jefferson for snooping.

So why do I believe she is still in the dark room and always has been? There have been far too frequent opportunities throughout the entire game to “sit” at every opportunity as though it is a common theme that you’re always sat down in thought, and while jefferson was photographing you he kept the dose rather low, but at this scene just prior to “escaping” he notes how it will be the final time she will have to listen to one of his lectures knowing it will be the last time she is conscious and alive. It is at this point when she has the needle to her neck that miraculously she is saved by chloe’s stepdad cop, and being heavily induced by the sudden drug overdose she enters the storm itself attempting to save the residents of arcadia bay on the way to the diner to see warren in order to be able to save chloe, however altering the timeline on this occasion doesn’t result in escape or reality forming to her will instead she awakes back in the classroom again, with jefferson wanting her to say how chloe deserved to die, how her selfies are shit etc and max’s subconscious states how she doesn’t want to say any of the options provided however her drug induced compliant state means she has to make one of those options before she can leave the classroom which itself has reminders that max is in fact “dead” already, and after getting out of the classroom she enters the corridors of her dorm (and perhaps symbolic of her mind and memories) with kate talking like jefferson’s puppet stating how max was responsible for her death and everything that happened to her as though he is roleplaying her or saying these things to her on the floor as she slips away as jefferson had liked kate as his new muse and felt max’s interfering prevented him taking it further.

After a few crazy corridors with the facts of rachel, haunted memories of victoria and her own life and time’s flashing through as selfies on the wall the drugs overdose really starts to kick in with time flowing backwards while max moves forwards and everything being woozy before everything goes dark and she’s hiding from a plethora of jefferson’s coming to hunt her down and take her back to the dark room, now unfortunately she follows the symbolism that escaping the light is staying alive, perhaps as he flashes a flashlight across her eyes checking if she’s alive or even the possibility that someone has discovered her body perhaps on the side of the road where she begin’s the game attempting to revive her, but rather than go into the light and awake she hides from everyone and everything following the road to the lighthouse at the end of the tunnel, which if she was actually going into the light could be considered holding onto life but she does avoid it at every turn sticking to the dark. There is an optional bottle hunting mission here which can even be accidentally skipped without realizing, perhaps symbolic of your own torture trying to find that fifth bottle in the first place! However you once again return to the familiar seated position, where if you escaped and examined your chair you will note max “still feels the bind’s” as though she never escaped and was still tied up in that chair in that dark room.

Reality begins to unravel further as the drugs take further hold, as you find yourself escaping reality within the snowglobe sat on chloe’s mantelpiece seeing yourself perform the actions you had made in the past, although knocking off the snowglobe and shattering it would have been a fitting snap from this scene transition to the next it’s not essential as max passes onto a room trying to find the combination from a million possibilities carved into the walls. If you find the combination it leads to a diner filled with all of the people significant to max with an etheric reality outside of the diner filled with all of the other meaningless souls which may have passed.

The diner is a mirror of symbolism for judgement in death, filled with all the people you’ve helped in life and those you’ve wronged to sit in judgement over your eternal soul, and you can hear the voices echo out to you some questioning why you didn’t help them and others thanking you for saving them or helping them resolve issues in their life which leads me to wonder whether there might have been a perfect possible ending to the game hidden away in which you help absolutely everyone there and turn all of the voices positive and perhaps allowing you to leave the diner and escape back into the room and take down jefferson once and for all with him being in shock at you surviving the overdose. However instead you talk to yourself the only true judge over your soul as to whether you are deemed worthy of heaven or deserve eternal damnation in hell, this perhaps is mirrored in your actual decision at the end of the game as you move on from the diner to watch the last moments with chloe you shared flash by as though your life was flashing by in the last moments before death, heading into the lighthouse at the end of the road, of course you return to a reality within the storm with chloe to face the final decision as to who to save.

The end choice here is rather a silly one and does render the entire game pointless as regardless of who you saved and what you did in the game everything is the same if you choose to save arcadia bay, you get the happy ending with everyone alive and happy, even kate regardless of whether you saved her or not. This does fly by in a flash though, with flashes of photographs quickly explaining how jefferson was taken down somehow by simply not saving chloe this resulted in him being arrested and kate never jumping! Ending on chloe’s funeral without a word being uttered as life fades away, and focusing on max’s face looking into the light perhaps happy fading away to heaven, whereas if you choose to save chloe you have doomed arcadia bay and everyone in it to utter destruction and you know that no matter what you will always be fighting to save chloe over and over never learning from your mistake as the world and universe continues to rain down destruction wherever you go hurting the lives of everyone around you and destroying the entire world for the sake of one life who never should’ve lived, truly creating hell on earth and always being in danger and with something to lose which you would always have to protect.

I do feel the ending could have gone better but if it is explained as either passing away peacefully or continuing to defy the reality of the situation as the drugs rage through your system to an inevitable painful death the crazyness at the end can be explained away, and this is the only way it leaves room for a sequel season, as if you are max again following on with the time travel abilities she knows she can’t change anything for fear of causing catastrophe’s or she fights on in a universe falling apart keeping chloe alive and neither would make a good game, however a narrative where jefferson (or someone else) has kidnapped a new victim knowing or not knowing they were kidnapped and drugged trying to come to terms with it (perhaps realizing later and actually having a chance to escape depending upon the choices made and the information gathered) could make for a good second season, and jefferson noted himself he wanted to kidnap kate again, so perhaps season 2 could focus on kate having been retaken by jefferson trying to figure out what is going on and using time travel abilities to gather the facts and attempt to wake up and escape from her inevitable fate. This would make a compelling second season and allow for different narratives and timelines and different effects and influences, as max was influenced by the stormy weather for her dreams perhaps kate or whoever is the new victim would have other thing’s going on around their delusional state.

Those who have played season 1 would also for the most part be unaware of what was going on as they took the time travel ability for granted and didn’t question the possible natures of realities within the game, so a reveal that she is kidnapped later would be a good twist to the plot and this allows for a narrative world to be established without having to be fully influenced by the factors of the first game as for the most part it was all in the delusional state of max’s mind as she slipped away inside jefferson’s dark room. If the victim was kate obviously thing’s could take on a more biblical front as she is very religious and takes influence from her experiences and thought processes, and the game could even begin with her in the hospital recovering and perhaps believing she has been granted these powers by god to change things for the better and that her life was spared for this very purpose.

Of course I am expanding and theorizing heavily on what could be coming for season two as nothing is known but simply following max would not make a compelling game it does need to be a new protagonist and with a reasonable explanation for what is happening, and in my opinion max dying in that dark room from that final overdose is the only thing that explains why the walls of reality collapse as much as they do, and the symbology used within the game at the end fits the theme’s of dying and the end of life far too well for there to be any other explanation. Go play life is strange for yourself and explore the game and experience the plot and the emotions as that is the point of a narrative game such as this, and make up your own mind as to what is going on.

The gadget show live returned to the NEC for 2016 and I received tickets and decided to take an unofficial review of the event along with trying a more on the go style of recording footage.

This year there were a number of record breaking attempts along with the usual gadget show live experience, and the plethora of stalls with all of your gadgety needs available to purchase. New to this year however there was also a yogscast special event, which it was lead to believe would be through the friday ticket but turned out to require it’s own ticket so while I would have attended it seemed I was unable to as a result of the ticket type I had been provided.

There were some new games on show and available to play both in regular form as well as a variety of 3d methods ranging from simple headsets utilizing your smartphone, through a unidirectional treadmill used to traverse a van gogh experience to the advanced 3d experience of the vive which allows you to interact while moving fully around your own room. I did have a press session with esper2 booked which I will be bringing you a review of separately later.

There were some other interesting events going on around the hall with a “robot wars” clone with competition to pit the other competitors as opposed to dismembering their robots.

I felt there weren’t as many items which were featured on the show to see around the halls and it felt simply like an excuse to sell gadgets, even if it was a range of products which had been tested during john bentleys trials it would have been something more associated with the show. There were some unique things available to buy such as getting your own 3d printed model made at the show however this would really be something to know in advance so you can ensure you would look as you wish for the model whereas if you show up not ready for a model then you’re not going to wish to purchase one as they aren’t inexpensive.

Previous years had featured a chance to queue to get something signed by the gadget show crew however this year there was no such stall, as I had stated in previous years the security had been pretty terrible telling you not to queue early telling you to come back at X time then when you came back the queue was “full” so I missed out meeting the crew and getting things signed on my birthday because of that useless security guard ruining the day, so that get’s removed by removing the chance to get anything signed entirely but it also removes another step of the actual event being related to the gadget show as you would have to attend the live session in the hall with tickets to such in order to see the presenters whatsoever, while in the hall you could queue for the yogscast to meet them and have things signed it seemed more like the yogscast were the main draw for many attendees on the day I visited.

The day was enjoyable and if you wanted to attend it would be recommended that you purchase the supertheatre tickets in order to get your moneys-worth out of the experience, other previous benefits have included discounts on products for show attendees and special competitions which only attendees could participate in, there were very few of these with most stalls being full retail and offering little in special variety or discount over online purchase, but most of the stalls were things to participate in with the likes of the gaming section, and a very large creativity section encouraging youngsters to learn about engineering and creativity through paperwork, and another large section with driving experiences from learning to drive and be driven in a small circle in a tesla motor car, for a ridiculously long queue and a rather fun remote controlled vehicle race section with prizes, unfortunately I played in the session directly after the finals for that day and won my race which would have placed me in the finals to win the trophy had I been able to play and it would have been good to try out for the trophy but I played too late.

I felt something was lacking during the experience and it was hard to put my finger on exactly what was wrong, but I think there was a distinct lack of upcoming technology or anything particularly special, sure there were a lot of vr experiences but it seemed that the show had been downgraded for a much younger audience as opposed to providing a variety of products to try and buy, also looking for active noise cancelling headphones in any of the audio sections proved rather difficult and I was only able to find one pair at a ridiculously expensive price, however this provides ample ground to learn for next year’s event, to provide a wider range of products, more from the show, and perhaps a better chance to interact with the presenters on the show floor, as they would be the main draw for any attendee.

Human fall flat is currently in alpha but is already a very playable and fun game, if you are familiar with gang beasts the character movement is very similar to that game however rather than being a multiplayer combat based experience this game focuses around the puzzles that occur in the life of a human.

Your human much like in real life can be painted and dressed in any way your imagination see’s fit, of course in the alpha he is naturally drawn to the cap bearing lifestyle, and this may remain the fact throughout the full release of course but you can still paint said cap in any fashion you see fit, and perhaps even disguise it as a flattened egon spengler do?

Humans start out in this world struggling to stand up and walk, and this may be the case in the game as your human tends to be a little unsteady on his feet, perhaps the result of heavy drinking, but this adds to the challenge of keeping your human straight without falling off the ledge as you look around, this of course is essential as orienting your human revolves around the control gained from looking around, and each arm can be moved easily using said feature to grab items and move them to solve puzzles (or perhaps even trash a certain room within the game)

In the alpha the game begins with humorous tutorialisation video’s hidden throughout the levels with remote controls and witty comments as you solve puzzles such as pushing a button to open a door, the game does get a little more complicated as the puzzles step up from box to pad to open door puzzles into complex find a way to get that part of the scenery loose to swing across this chasm in order to progress further into the game. I would presume the final release would continue the witty humour later into the game and provide more objects to interact with, it has been stated that there will definitely be at least one further area to play around in.

The levels themselves begin rather linear however there are hidden secrets even in the early levels before things really open up to allow multiple paths and solutions to the puzzles and that’s where the replayability comes in, as there is plenty around to mess about with and find hidden secrets you never knew existed as you explore further and play around with objects you didn’t think would do anything.

The game was quickly greenlit and will be coming to steam soon but if you can’t wait you can purchase the alpha directly from the developers on their website. When the game is fully released I will do an update and show what is new to the game and a proper review video.

If you enjoyed the look of the game go buy a copy for yourself and do remember there will more features and at least one extra level in the full steam release!

I received a voucher to try products from the tesco finest party food selection for review, and along with a 3 for 2 discount I got a major price reduction on the food selected to try.

The tesco finest party food range was all designed to cook at the same temperature and be easy to heat up with minimal effort for party food over the seasonal christmas holidays and parties in general. Located on the shelves next to tesco’s regular range of party food in very similar packages it perhaps wasn’t ideal for choosing items in the same discounted range but for a shopper wishing to choose their party food for the holidays the entire selection was available in one convenient location.

Although there was a selection noted on the website to try I found the range in store had other products not mentioned whilst also finding it impossible to seek out some of those nicer products which were stated to be in the range.

The majority of this list was impossible to find in store, especially the frozen and sweet treats, only finding the pigs in blankets, a selection of differing prawn based products, the oriental selection, an indian selection pack and some crispy chicken skewers.

Obviously there were some products I would have tried had I been able to find then however the variation in the finest range in the store I visited was lacking choosing to only have traditional party fare along with the oriental and indian selections lacking the choices in varied party foods, this could be a sign of the area however being stagnant full of old people set in their ways unwilling to try new and different food styles and only including the oriental and indian selections for natives in the area.

The products I took were very tasty although the indian party food seemed to be rather toned down unless you dipped the products in the included sauce which doesn’t seem very indian as usually all of their food is filled to the brim with flavours and sensations, and for the most part the combination required the sauces in order to get the full indian flavour. The chicken skewers I took also had a very good crispy coating far beyond what you would find in most fried chicken and with the ease of cooking is a definite recommendation and would be perfect to dip into any of your usual dipping sauces you could include with a party selection or to eat separately on their own.

Now ideally as this was purchased to be used as party food where it would provide something of extra sustenance rather than the usual selection of cheese and crackers, sweets, crisps and nuts and even provide something warm and satisfying as a variation. I would even state that these would be fine to eat cooled down after cooking however my mother set in her ways didn’t wish to have these on the christmas table after everything instead choosing to just lay out a selection of the usual cold snacks, so I had these on a separate occasion, but it’s the thought that counts right? I personally thought these were an ideal small nibble selection to put out on the table for those who want a little warm treat and something more wholesome than simple snacks and something very tasty that would fit perfectly on a party selection table, this is also the reason I didn’t take the oriental selection even though it looked tasty I wanted to go for something which would be warmed and offer variation, not that if I’dve taken those they would’ve been included as they were too different for my mother to include on the table.

All in all the party food range is very tasty and ideal for party situations and with 3 for 2 often better in price than the regular party food, or competitors counterparts which will be lower in quality and flavour.

Parts of this video are pre christmas where the deadline stated 5 days (with the same number of days til christmas) however visiting the next day while still preparing this it stated 34 days so priorities got reshuffled, apologies to the lateness of the review being that christmas is over, however these are ideal for any party, including the chinese new year, birthdays or even easter, any excuse for a party.

* All product names and descriptions adapted from tesco orchard as they are relevant to the review, to show the range stated and products which could not be found, their direct descriptions are not used as they desire to hold the “marketed” terms under federal trade commission regulations and as a result the products are described but without using their buzz terms. As this is used in a review this fulfills fair use statutes.

Insomnia LAN Gaming Festival returned for it’s 56th incarnation at the NEC in Birmingham for the first time through the 11th-14th of December. Established as the uk’s biggest gaming festival many attend for the tournaments and social LAN gaming elements, but many do not realize that there is also a gaming expo associated with the event.

The expo hall had a good variety of content, from an indie games section, more established franchises like dark souls and halo, as well as competitive zones for those who didn’t bring their own computers such as the smash bro’s and minecraft zones. On top of this there were two main stages featuring a plethora of youtube and gaming personalities over the weeekend as well as a cosplay section showcasing various tools of the trade with cosplayers available for advice and tutorials.

I visited on the friday so unfortunately was not able to delve into the main competitions and talk to those taking part as these had not yet began, but I did get a glimpse of the true silver champion hearthstone trophy which was very impressive indeed, so much that I would consider beginning playing so as to get the possibility to win such a trophy someday.

Comparing the expo to EGX the hall is smaller, as EGX spread through 3 halls and this event was contained to one, with a seperate hall for the LAN arena and another for tents (it is a true festival after all, and does not require you to purchase a hotel, although camp fires would not be advised nor barbeques unless you wished to take them outside onto the car park. Saying this at one third of the size the number of visitors and the queue sizes were significantly smaller, this lead to a more chilled and relaxed atmosphere, attendants were accustomed to the friendly and social aspect of LAN gaming and the event, so when there were queue’s these were very small; literally waiting for the current time period to finish then play. While waiting in any queue everyone struck up conversations with each other and the entire event was very chilled out, much like the ice and winter theme of the expo.

While at the event I decided to take part in the super smash bro’s tournament mostly because I was asked by the pretty lady on the stall and I figured why not, I got through a couple of rounds but ultimately failed by picking little mac and flailing off the edge in over ambitious attacks attempting to counter my opponents ryu game where he could be hit blazing to the edge and off the screen yet still come back, so verticallity for victory seemed ideal with a well timed uppercut. For the most part we tied on percentages and I only failed by my own ineptitude.

There were a number of stalls to purchase all sorts of geeky goodies too, from plushies to t-shirts and even knitted winter jumpers with geeky styles. And for the dedicated gamers there was a GAME stand selling not only electronics you may require for the lan (new keyboards, mice etc should yours break) but also some discounted special edition games and even tickets to the next insomnia festival at a discounted rate.

Some of the indie games I will attempt to bring to you on the main gaming channel with their own reviews, still awaiting confirmation. One game I wouldn’t be able to but was fun was a game called unbox, taking the irony of “unboxing” to a new level you play as a cardboard box in a variety of mini games from races to downright elimination of the other cardboard companions. The game was very fun however the local multiplayer only element of the game may make this difficult for some, and would be the reason I couldn’t take it on at present, perhaps I should’ve asked to record at the event gameplay as the games were very fun and I enjoyed playing with who I presume was the developer of the game and would recommend a purchase should you be able to get people together to play.

The latest halo game was also available to play with an ironic queue for photographs with two spartans yet no queue for the main game itself, a little out of practice the level of the demo threw a horde of enemies upon you with very powerful tank like minions who could down you in one go and your AI companions would then rush in to pick you up getting downed themselves proving a rather difficult challenge indeed, at least I assumed they were AI the potential is that they were interconnected machines and it was the other demo participants also getting downed by the fiend either way it shows that halo is not a casual shooter in any respect (at least on the difficulty the machines were set to)

From this I went on to play dark souls 3, noticing the demo at present lacks any leveling system as I rested at the campfire after dispatching a few enemies hoping to up my defense a little due to the difficulty of some of the enemies. I notice that things are a lot more linear in this incarnation of the franchise, not to state that there aren’t other paths as there were two distinct ways to progress interwoven through the level, I focused on taking down the extra tough minion up the stairs on the left who seemed to raise the dead as he was tougher than the other enemies hoping to get some decent loot but alas to no avail, from this I progressed the main way finding secret windows to progress through leading down to the dragon. The dragon was very apt at setting fire to your path if you didn’t use cunning, it is entirely possible to chug estus constantly and rush through it however the smart amongst you would note that you could taunt the dragon to go one path then double back up to his origonal position and through the safety of the building before the next area you would require to race the flame once more. Having spent my time exploring and trying different things and paths I ran out of playtime unfortunately, but would hope to be able to bring a demo play to you should I be able to get hold of a copy.

Other experiences around the event included a racing simulator which you had to pay £5 for, which unsurprisingly remained unused considering people had paid to enter the event such a game was not very well received, especially as another driving game with steering wheel and (loose floppy) pedals was available for free in the center of the event. Also there were a few 3d experiences, knowing that I missed out the vive at EGX I immediately signed up and got to play on this, where the games were very impressive, there was an underwater experience watching a whale get close, a 3D drawing game where of course you have to draw something of an immature and penile nature… In 3D! then the real games began and there was a 3D western zombie shooter which I unfortunately forget the name of but was very fun and showed just how responsive and accurate the controls were, and of course I completed it flawlessly! Finally there was an aperture science 3d experience with GLaDos and the co-op robots which contained the usual portal humour but also some intimidation with GLaDos towering over you, and the floor beneath you giving way before finally you get crushed out of existence. The vive will be coming soon with development kits going out in january, and an estimated release around april. You can find more details at www.htcvr.com and I would love to bring more should HTC desire to send me a version and some demo’s

The vive was very much off the rails, so you were’nt constrained to following a set path or a rollercoaster as many existing 3D experiences tend to be, you were free to move around fully up to virtual walls, which represent by honeycomb shapes when you get too close (imagine a star trek holodeck saying hey the wall’s here don’t walk into me) and I can imagine the software and games developed for such a system could be very inspirational indeed.

There was also a Merge VR for the lower budget which converts Iphone’s into a 3d Experience, obviously lacking compared to the vive as there aren’t the handheld controllers which get sensed regardless of where you leave them, and lacks the native room based intelligence, but was a reasonable on the rails experience.

The final main game I played was battleborn which is an online first person shooting moba style game, with a variety of champions to choose from and an in game leveling system to keep ahead of the competition. Playing the game it was very fun and seemed promising, currently in beta I would have to keep up to date to see how things progress and hope that the game doesn’t get a toxic community like super monday night combat did as a game like this is very dependent upon the community and I would hope it would remain fun and fair.

There were a number of giveaways at the event itself, along with freebies to collect. One competition I took part in was with #gamestate a unique game development method where the game will entirely be designed as to the whim’s of the website’s members giving everything a choice and open to forum suggestions. I took part in the competition because I was told that the prize was a cap, a pair of headphones and a rugged looking backpack, all on display at the event and needing a new set of headphones which were decent I decided to enter. I sat around during the drawing process where a few names were selected but as they were not there to claim prizes these got dismissed, finally they narrowed it to the three of us that were there and my name was selected, I got excited thinking I would be getting all of the prizes but instead was given the snapback hat with blocks to put on it, the only thing I wouldn’t ever use. Being a community based game design where the users get a choice if you ignore the fact that I was mislead to believe that all of the items were the prize I would have chosen either the headphones or the rugged backpack, both of which I would use constantly as I carry a backpack everywhere and a rugged strong one would be very useful, and the headphones would be good for recording and playing games, the cap I would never wear as it is not my style let alone the childish brick part of the cap. So sadly although I won this was very dissappointing.

Other freebies I received included the battleborn t-shirt, a sonic hat which I am more likely to wear as a novelty than the stupid cap, and some in game dlc. I’m sure there would have been more freebies on offer but I don’t tend to ask but when provided I happily accept.

The expo also had two stages which a variety of content could be seen throughout the show, from competitive gameplay to youtubers putting on a live “lets play” and even talk panel shows with live audience Q&A sessions. I sat down and watched gassy mexican and daithidenogla play a couple of sessions of keep talking and nobody explodes, as a live setting it was very interesting to see them shouting instructions across the stage from each other in an attempt to diffuse the bomb, both having their own style of play, gassy listening to daithi but ultimately never having played before not knowing in some of the more difficult puzzles what was required due to unclear instruction, and daithi’s style on the bomb was to often ignore gassy and just panic cutting wires and exploding the bomb immediately. As this was a live show it would have added further entertainment if there was a penalty for exploding the bomb (like a water bomb to the face or something) but either way was very entertaining to watch.

Ultimately as a comparison on an expo level I would recommend visiting I56 for the shorter queue’s (and often non existent queue’s) and for the more relaxed atmosphere, perhaps taking advantage of the indie games at EGX and saving the hefty queue’d games for a visit to I56 where you could play the titles such as rise of the tomb raider, halo, assassins creed syndiccate etc with absolutely no queue where at EGX the wait time had been in the 1 hour plus frame. Furthermore if you wanted to get really social and play in the lan tournaments you should definitely get a BYOC ticket and camp at the event in style (or at least your tent) I would say if you’re a gamer you should check out an insomnia event for yourself and get the full experience.

The next insomnia will be held 25th to 28th of march with full details at insomniagamingfestival.com whether you choose to only visit the expo or take part in the lan gaming festival you won’t regret your visit.